Dedicated to the Business of Contemporary Live Music
THE O2 (cap 23,000) in London has been named Venue of the Decade by US music industry publication Billboard, beating New York’s Madison Square Garden (20,780) and Radio City Music Hall (6,013) as runners-up. The venue kicked-off 2010s with Bon Jovi performing on the roof and has hosted over 2,000…
Read moreFESTIVAL REPUBLIC (FR), promoter of events such as Reading (cap. 90,000), Leeds (80,000) and Latitude (35,000), has applied to stage a three-day, four stage festival in Dundee’s Camperdown Park in May. Owned by Live Nation Entertainment, which also owns Scotland’s leading promoter DF Concerts and its Glasgow festival TRNSMT (50,000),…
Read moreSEVERAL INDUSTRY organisations have submitted evidence for a preliminary investigation into the proposed takeover of eBay-owned StubHub by controversial resale website Viagogo. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) launched the inquiry into the $4.05 billion (£3.11bn) deal in December, along with an invitation to comment until the 10 January. The…
Read moreFESTIVAL REPUBLIC is expanding its ReBalance scheme to give additional live support to emerging female artistes. The three-year initiative, which was launched in 2017 in partnership with PRS Foundation, initially offers successful female applicants one week’s studio time with an engineer and expenses paid, plus a performance at a Festival…
Read moreUK MUSIC CEO Michael Dugher is stepping down after almost three years leading the music industry trade body. Since joining the organisation in 2017, Dugher has campaigned to change planning laws to protect music venues, challenged the government over the impact of rising business rates and supported the establishment of…
Read moreMANCHESTER INTERNATIONAL festival (MIF), the multi-venue event showcasing a spectrum of arts, has appointed Jane Beese as head of music. Her previous roles include head of music at London’s Roundhouse and head of contemporary music at the Southbank Centre, for which she was responsible for the co-ordination and…
Read moreINTEGRO GROUP, one of the largest insurance brokers internationally, will be changing the name of its sports and entertainment division to Tysers, following the acquisition of the 200-year-old insurance company in 2018. Since launching in 2005, Integro has acquired a number of live entertainment-related companies, including Robertson Taylor, Doodson, Allan…
Read moreED SHEERAN’S manager Stuart Camp has given evidence against two ticket touts who bulk-bought tickets to the artiste’s charity show and sold them for almost four times their face value. Peter Hunter and David Smith are alleged to have used fake names and addresses to buy more than 1,000 tickets…
Read moreSHOW PRODUCER Adrian Grant aimed to create “big sumptuous” looks for the latest leg of Respect: The Aretha Franklin Songbook, which features singers Stacy Francis, Tanya Edwards and Cleo Stewa performing the music of the “Queen of Soul”. Production manager Aaron Booth invited London-based Colour Sound Experiment, the show’s provider…
Read moreNOTTINGHAM-BASED Gigantic Tickets has sold a 75 per cent stake in the company to pan-Europe live entertainment conglomerate Deutsche Entertainment AG (DEAG). The deal has been done via the UK subsidiary of DEAG’s MyTicket platform. Gigantic, which was founded in 2007, will continue to operate under its existing name and…
Read moreICONIC LONDON venue Koko (cap. 1,500) has been badly damaged by a fire that started late in the evening of 6 January and lasted over five hours. The London Fire Brigade (LFB) was called just before 9pm to tackle the fire at the Camden-based venue, which was undergoing a major…
Read morePLANS FOR an 8,000-capacity area in Edinburgh have been revealed, with Birmingham-based NEC Group partnering with leisure and sports consultancy Lothian Leisure Development (LLD). The companies have secured a 30-acre site in Straiton, outside of Edinburgh, with the development including conference, retail outlets, a cinema and two hotels. NEC Group…
Read moreIN A move that took the industry by surprise, controversial resale website Viagogo has bought eBay-owned StubHub for $4.05 billion (£3.91bn). Viagogo founder and CEO Eric Baker has bought the company he co-founded with Jeff Fluhr when they were still at business school. Baker left StubHub and moved to the…
Read moreAEG HAS secured a new naming rights partner for its 65,000-capacity summer concert series in London’s Hyde Park, which has resulted in a change of name for the event. American Express has replaced Barclaycard as the headline sponsor and British Summer Time has been renamed American Express presents BST Hyde…
Read moreTHE PLAN by America’s Madison Square Garden Company (MSGC) to build a 21,500-capacity MSG Sphere arena four miles (6.4 kms) from The O2 (cap. 21,000) in London is delayed with no planned completion date given. MSGC, which runs the 18,600-capacity Madison Square Garden in New York, is also constructing an…
Read morePromoters in the Highlands and Islands have told LIVE UK of their concerns for the future of the 1,000-capacity Ironworks in Inverness, which may be demolished to make way for a 162-bedroom hotel. London-based developer Bricks Capital has submitted a proposal of application notice (PAN) to build a Courtyard by…
Read moreVENUE MANAGEMENT company and promoter VMS Live will open a central London office in January as part of its refocused business model. Following the death of founder Steve Forster in April (see LIVE UK issue 231), the company went through an executive restructure which saw Bert Van Horck appointed CEO…
Read moreYOUTUBE HAS partnered with See Tickets, Ticketmaster and Eventbite to help music fans discover concerts and buy tickets through the video platform. People in the UK and Ireland watching videos from Official Artists Channels will now see listings for live performances, alongside links to the ticketing partners’ website. “At YouTube,…
Read moreTHE US financier who transformed the live music industry in Europe and America in the late-1990s, setting the foundations of what became Live Nation Entertainment, died on 26 November aged 71. Having performed a roll-up of US radio stations, which he sold at a handsome profit, Robert FX Sillerman saw…
Read moreBRISTOL’S NEW arena came a step closer last month when Malaysian developer YTL put in a planning application to Bristol and South Gloucestershire authorities for a 17,080-capacity venue in Filton, to the north of the city. The project is the surviving proposal of three separate initiatives for the city, whose…
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